It tightened and tangled, like a...

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for #5MinuteFiction. Today marks Week 89 for this fabulous contest, and Week 1 at it's new home with Nicole Wolverton's blog. I met Nicole through our competitions during this weekly contest and just want to give her a shout out and say thank you for giving it a new home!

Big love to Leah Petersen, who created this weekly contest and hosted it for almost 2 years.  With her book coming out, she has to let go of this brain child.

Here's the 5MinuteFiction deal:  The prompt goes up at 12:30pm EST, you have 5 minutes to use the prompt and write your story. There is no editing, no research, no spell checking... you just GO!  Then a judge picks five finalists and the public votes on the winner.  Easy as pie.

Today's prompt was: "It tightened and tangled, like a..."

Here is my entry (warts and all):  
ETA: My post made it to the finals!  Go read and vote for your fave!

God, the pain. It tightened and tangled, like a baling wire around my head and around my heart. How can one word hold so much weight?

Cancer.

The doctor said it came on like a wave, a tsunami. There really wasn’t anything we could have done to prevent it, to prepare, to pre-see. He said “we” like this will impact his day. His week. His life.

I sat in the doc’s office, the hard plastic chair making it impossible to stop sliding, as I tried to stay focused on the words as they fell from his lips and shattered on the floor. So many tiny shards I couldn’t avoid stepping into them with my loafered feet: Chemotherapy. Radiation. Surgery. Lymph. Prognosis.

Weeks. Maybe months.

Like a crap shoot. The doctor’s words rolled off his tongue like he was rolling the dice. Life dice. My life dice. How long would I have before I crapped out? I already feel like I’ve rolled snake eyes.

He takes my hand, shakes it firmly. Squeezes my shoulder as he urges me toward the door. As if I am now repellant enough to require shooing. I step into the sunlight and breathe in the sun. Is this the beginning of my recovery or the beginning of the end?

Only time will tell.

Thursday Haiku - Waiting

waiting like children

minutes stretch elongated

swim in three short months

Wednesday Word

We interrupt your daily hectic to bring you this:

Yogi Bear

*breathe*

Living in Hawaii - Guest Blog by Toby Neal

Welcome my friend Toby Neal, author of Blood Orchids to the blog today! As a resident of Hawaii, Toby wanted to share a little bit about the things in her every day that make living in Hawaii so special to her. I admit I'm a tad jealous reading about her tank top moments right now as I look out my window at the inches of Colorado snow.

Take it away Toby!

http://hawaiiw.net/wailua-falls-kauai-hawaii/

Hawaii is a beautiful place to live—and in February in the U.S., one of the best places to be in the whole nation! Thought I’d share some of my favorite things, and not just the obvious palm trees and blue water (though that’s hard to beat.)

• Whalesong underwater when swimming—in February, we have the most whales of the whole season.
• Lilikois (passion fruit) falling off the vines—like untimely Easter eggs, passion fruit collect in the grass waiting for me to make scrumptious pies, jam, sauces out of them.
• Going snorkeling in the rain. Something about the patter of rain all round as you swim through the warm ocean—bliss.
• Playing tennis with my daughter, working up a sweat, in my tank top…while the rest of the world digs snow out of their driveways. I grew up in Hawaii, so it wasn’t until I lived in the Midwest for seven years that I really “got” this one—but now I relish every tank-top minute of it.
• Clouds dancing elaborate ballet on the mountains—in Hawaii clouds are almost like another physical part of the landscape, they have such form and drama.
• Wind—which means windsurfing, kiteboarding, and spectacular feats of athleticism on the part of many sporty friends (I prefer to spectate.)
• Mynah birds commenting on everything, hopping around beady-eyed busybodies.
• Sugar cane bending in the aforementioned wind, entire fields dancing hula skirts of green.
• Waterfalls pumping rainbows as they refill our waterways.

We have our challenges here in Hawaii, and I explore some of them in my books—but living in this lush natural beauty isn’t one of them while making a living is!

 __________________________________________

Visit Toby's Blog

Toby Neal was raised on Kauai in Hawaii. She wrote and illustrated her first story at age 5 and has been published in magazines and won several writing contests. After initially majoring in Journalism, she eventually settled on mental health as a career and loves her work, saying, “I’m endlessly fascinated with people’s stories.” She enjoys many outdoor sports including bodyboarding, scuba diving, beach walking, gardening and hiking. She lives in Hawaii with her family and dogs. Toby credits her counseling background in adding depth to her characters–from the villains to Lei Texeira, the courageous and vulnerable heroine in the Lei Crime Series.

About Blood Orchids:

Fast-paced crime mystery with a touch of romance, readers call Blood Orchids "un-putdownable"!

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

"Sometimes in crime fiction you stumble across a character who lives on beyond the book's end by virtue of their psychological complexity, and the richness with which the author has drawn them. Will Graham, Jack Reacher, Alex Cross, and now they have a worthy female counterpart in Lei Teixera. Blood Orchids is that rarity among debut novels, in that it satisfies on every level. A powerful new talent is on the scene, whole-heartedly recommended."
-Drew Cross, former police officer and author of BiteMarks

Hawaii is palm trees, black sand and blue water—but for policewoman Lei Texeira, there’s a dark side to paradise.

Lei has overcome a scarred past to make a life for herself as a cop in the sleepy Big Island town of Hilo. On a routine patrol she finds two murdered teenagers—one of whom she’d recently busted. With its echoes of her own past, the murdered girl’s harsh life and tragic death affect Lei deeply. She becomes obsessed—even as the killer is drawn to Lei's intensity, feeding off her vulnerabilities and toying with her sanity.

Despite her obsession with the case and fear that she's being stalked, Lei finds herself falling in love for the first time. Steaming volcanoes, black sand beaches and shrouded fern forests are the backdrop to Lei's quest for answers—and the stalker is closer than she can imagine, as threads of the past tangle in her future. Lei is determined to find the killer—but he knows where to find her first.

A to Z Challenge 2012 is Coming!

In case you have not already heard, there is something fun going on the web each April. In 2011, if you took away all the Sundays in the month of April you were left with exactly 26 days. This year it looks like we start on Sunday so we might have to bend that rule a little.  Assign each day a letter and blog along that theme, and you're in!  Check out the A-to-Z Blog Challenge.

Join me and more than a thousand other bloggers this April as we embark on yet another month of alphabet goodness. It sounds easy, but I have to say they call it a challenge for good reason.  You get Sundays off, but that is still a lot of blogging.   Sign Up here!

As you might have learned hanging around here, I love words and word origins. Last April I had a blast blogging about a fab word each day. Some were new to me, some were oldies that deserved some time in the sun, and some were just hilarious. Even more fun was finding images to go with the posts every day!

There is a lot of great information about the blogfest on the site, so go check it out and join me in April.

Sign Up on the Official Linky

Peace, love, and alphabet blogs!

Stuff and happenings

My dear friend S. shared this image from Orlando's airport on her Facebook a while back, and looking at my last post and the subsequent hiatus, I thought it would be the proper segue back into the blog routine.

How have you been?

What's New: I've got a guest blog over at my friend Jenna Quentin's.  It is about inspiration and how images can help with that. Do you find images inspiring? I certainly do.  Come see me over there and check out the teddy bear that ignited my inspiration for the post and leave a comment while you're at it.

What's News: So where the heck have I been?  I spent the better part of last week preparing for a hearing at the House of Representatives in my state capital in Colorado.  We learned while there that the dome of this building is actually still plated in gold leaf. The crew that installs it is one of very few in the world that have retained this skill as part of their trade, and they apply the gold from 7" squares of gold leaf sheets using cotton balls. Can you imagine?  

Denver's Capital Building (dome refurbish underway)

My org's bill to create a Child Loss Awareness license plate was brought before the Transportation Committee. We were so nervous and excited about testifying, and were glad that we had prepared statements to be read aloud. There wasn't a dry eye among the committee as five of us shared our stories and explained why this license plate is important to us. The committee was so amazing, very moved by our testimony, and honored us with their own thoughtful words. Several made a point of having their statements heard about how heartfelt their "yes" vote was.  In the end, the committee voted unanimously to approve the bill!   

This has been years in the making, and we still have a few more hearings to go, but we are now one step closer to this:

remembering a child - www.rowantreefoundation.org

Reading: I'm about 3/4 of the way through Game of Thrones Book 3 - A Storm of Swords - and dear sweet Jesu this man can tell a story!  If there is anyone out there looking for something to read who has not yet partaken, please just do yourself a favor and pick this up.

Enjoy the weekend people!

A Thursday Haiku - Combobulation

I spent most of today trying to get recombobulated
after realizing that it wasn't Wednesday anymore.
You ever have on of those days (daze)?
T.G.I.F. (tomorrow)

http://dogs.icanhascheezburger.com/page/8/

combobulation

a state of zen, joy and peace

sometimes includes nap

Loosening the Tight Grip

Do you spend time being mindful about getting what you want? I don't mean actively doing things and checking them off your list - although is important too and is probably what comes next.  I'm talking about visualizing and manifesting what you really want by using images, words, or other means.

-My prayer box-

When I look around my office I see dozens of totems and quotes and inspirational tools that are all meant to keep my mind and energy focused on whatever it is I need. Now that I am writing this, I am starting to realize I have oodles of things here. I wonder if visitors to my little space think this is a crazy place, lol.  *considers decluttering*

I wrote once before about vision boards, and how powerful they can be as a manifesting tool.  What I wanted to share today was my little prayer box.  This was a gift from a friend and has become quite cherished to me. The gift was intended for me to use as a meditative tool, to write love notes to my deceased daughter, to put worries down on paper and let them go, to release any number of things by placing them into the box.

If you were to open the box you'd find all kinds of notes and scraps and little trinkets that are probably meaningful only to me. I have written prayers for friends, for my family, for myself, requests for help, requests for clarity, requests for the Universe to rescue me from the hectic. I've written notes about being ready to move on from something, about being ready to receive something into my life. 

I have never gone back through to check the status of the things I have requested - I think that goes against the point. What matters is that when you put something in the box, you've given yourself permission to loosen the tight grip you've had on it - which allows things to happen (usually exactly what you need).

I once found an image on the internet that someone posted of their achievements in life, and I wish I had saved it because it was stunning. For me, it represents what comes after the prayer box. I'd love to reproduce this in my office.

In the image there was a shelf on a wall, with a mason jar on top. On the wall above the jar were dozens of plain paper butterflies attached to look as if they were flying from the jar. On each one, in neat lettering was a goal.  Once that goal was achieved, the butterfly was plucked from the wall and placed in the jar. The goals were varied from the material, to the emotional and mental, to fun and very personal. If anyone out there has seen this... I would love if you'd send me the link.

What do you do to help you let go of the things that weigh you down?

2001: Stop Making Contact on Twitter

Scrolling down the list of my new followers on twitter *waves hi to you all*, I clicked to follow one of them and got an error that I was no longer allowed to follow any more people.

Seems I had hit the magical threshold of 2001 people being followed, and now must wait until I gain more followers of my own.

Back when I joined twitter, I heard grumblings about this mysterious follow ceiling, but honestly never paid it any mind because I was still hanging on every word tweeted by the 100 I was following.  And so here I am wondering how in the world I am going to move on in Twitterland.

Enter google, to whom I posed the question about how best to cull the list of people I am following. I was pleased to find a bevy of tools to help me do just that.

There are oodles, but I decided upon: ManageFlitter because it was listed on several "best of" lists and it seems to be intuitive to a new user and most importantly, it was FREE.

In a few short minutes I was looking at a matrix showing a detailed analysis of my twitter makeup. Who was I following, who was most active, who was not following me back, etc.  I don't really subscribe to the school of "follow me or I will unfollow you". It is counter to my purpose for using twitter.  I'm not in a race to gain followers, I am trying to stay connected to people that interest me in the publishing world.

A few minutes more and I was able to zero in on people I was following who hadn't tweeted in months and years.  Those are the ones I decided to cull. Now I am back down to 1800 or so, and able to continue hooking up with the people who are active and sharing things of interest to me.

Short of an explosion in my own meager following, I will be returning to ManageFlitter in the future when I hit that ceiling again.

By the way, did you know that once you hit 2001 people being followed, you're then held to a formula keeping your limit at the number of your following plus 10%.  Thereby protecting us all from the robot twitter flood.  Who knew?

Stephen King's ON WRITING

Leafing through Stephen King's ON WRITING for the umpteenth time, I was drawn to the section in the back called "On Living: A Postscript". 

-click to see at Amazon.com-

The postscript is a retelling of the day he was struck by a car while walking in rural Maine.  The writing is stark and a little bit funny in that way only King can do with the darker stuff.

I had heard about his accident when it happened in 1999 and I know I've read this part of his book before, but something about it resonates differently with me today. I guess it's true that who you are and where you are in your own life shapes the way you receive what you read. Thankfully, the world wasn't finished with Mr. King on that day in June 13 years ago.

ON WRITING is one of those books that you can move forward and backward through, I am not sure I've read the whole thing in order. Although, now that I've restarted it from the First Foreword, I think I'll move through it this time in order.

The book is about so many things, his life and stories he remembers from his childhood.  And of course, writing.  He calls it a Memoir of the Craft, and it is indeed that.  King talks in the early pages about how there are so many books out there on writing that he didn't want to write that book. 

Instead he describes his book as "my attempt to show how one writer is formed. Not how one writer was made. I don't believe writers can be made, either by circumstance or by self-will (although I did believe those things once)."  (emphasis his)

All in all, it is an interesting read and I think any fan of his, writer or no, would enjoy what's between these pages.

Fun with Story Cubes

One of my children is named Rory, and while shopping for Christmas presents I stumbled upon the game Rory's Story Cubes.  I thought it would be exceptionally clever to buy it for my sweet daughter.  Of course, someone else in our family had this very same idea and she got more than one.  I've had the box on my desk ever since.

I thought it would be fun to give the cubes a roll and see what story popped out.

I give you... The Tale of Sir Belwin, The Daisy Knight

Once upon a time, on a rainy night so cloudy there was no moon, a masked man found a castle with the gates unmanned and locked. He pounded the iron portcullis with his sword for a long time before a pale white hand waved at him from the window above.

"Cease the clangor, man! What do you want here?" a reedy voice called from above.

"My name is Sir Belwin, The Daisy Knight. I seek shelter in your tower, my lord. The flood has washed away my tent."

Everyone knew the Daisy Knight to be fair and handsome, not one to hide behind a mask. 

"The Daisy Knight, you say? Be gone with you. Or I'll send out my man and you'll be pushing up the daisies."

After a day of editing, this was a welcome distraction. I think I'll keep these little babies close.  :)

Does a different story appear for you?  

When do you write best?

Nighttime or Daytime?

having a game of nighttime daytime

Do you tend to do your best work at a certain time of the day?  Lately for me, I find the work I do at night is the stuff that sticks. There is something about the quiet that settles over my house at night. Dogs curl up near the fire, kids all nestled in (or at least playing near) their beds. Tea seems to stay warmer longer. Things flow.

During the day lately, I find myself holing up in my office to write only to be distracted by a million other things and then frustrated by my lack of quality progress. I can get through an edit or write a few hundred words but I usually come back to it again at night and do it again. 

Night writing, which seems to produce better stuff, has started to become a challenge. I am reverting back to my old night owl habits which no longer fit when the days are full of kids and family and work and life around here.

And so tomorrow begins my journey back into writing by day. I figure with the Super Bowl I am not likely to be distracted by the phone. So its just a matter of avoiding the in-house interruptions. (Are you watching the game, btw? I get strange looks here in football country when I reveal my lack of football interest.)

Perhaps if I got dressed and walked past the family with my bag and my keys, waved goodbye to the cherubs and kissed hubby and then walked around the house and then--with stealth--climbed in my office window and locked the door (!) I would be able to hide and write all day.

I'm curious if you have scheduled writing time, or write all the time but find that night or day works better for you.  Pray tell.
 

http://cheezburger.com/6208/lolz/View/2695442944

In case you've not seen the video whence the above image comes, enjoy:

Oh, and before I forget... I watched THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES last night with hubs. It was good.  Dark, sad, tense, and good. Helped that the main character had eyes that brought on *instant* smolder. Worth adding to the Netflix queue.

If I had plotted this out in the first place...

As mother nature dumps another foot of snow on top of the foot that fell earlier today, I find myself in my writer cave thinking. I've been thinking a lot about editing and the revision process and realize that much of the work I am doing now in these final edits on my novel could have been avoided had I been a plotter instead of the over-proud panster that I used to be.

omg crazy fractal maze...

Plotting? For shame, that is stifling my creativity!
Outlines? Please...
Plan? Folly!

Hubris.

Notice that I refer to the pantser that I used to be. Past tense. I am so totally cured of that. That does nothing to help me with the novel that I wrote by the seat of my pants. *tosses the pantser badge aside without shame and joins the plotting crew.*

I have come to realize the value plotting can have on my writing. You get to the same places when you outline that you do when drafting, you just get there sooner. You can have the same conversations with your friends about the story idea if you plot it into outline or short paragraph form. You can visualize all of the points in your head, making notes and blurbing the dialog in the margins of your outline. You can even draft a few lines of description if you must.  But the thing you probably won't do a whole lot of is waste your time.

It is a hard realization relating to my work. Writing my novel wasn't a waste of my time. I think it is finally becoming what it was meant to be, albeit through many drafts and revisions. That said, I firmly believe that had I plotted this one out I would have been finished with it more than a year ago.  I would have been able to use my time more wisely and might be putting the finishing touches on my shiny new witchy novel instead.

Ah, its easy to be sure about what could have been. I don't know if I could really say that I regret finding myself facing this realization. Because if I didn't happen with this book, it might have happened with the next, or the next. So, either way, I am in a better place for it.

I've shown you mine, so the question remains:  Are you a plotter or a panster?

Cover Reveal! - xoxoxo

I am excited to be a part of the cover reveal for my blog friend Bethany Lopez. Her new book, xoxoxo, is the second in her Contemporary Young Adult series, Stories about Melissa. The first book, Ta Ta for Now is available in the links at the bottom of this post.

xoxoxo will be released on March 2, 2012.  Until then, feast your eyes on this:

 

 

Melissa has learned a lot since her freshman year began, but it isn’t over yet! Her world is about to change again with the birth of her new sibling, and she has to figure out how she will adjust to being the eldest of five kids. 

 

She, Jess, and Jimmy are inseparable, and she is having a fantastic time although she can’t help but miss Brian as she tries to learn how to deal with his relationship with Layla. 

 

Everything seems to be happening at once and that is when she is introduced to Ben Campbell, a senior at Dearborn High, who becomes an interesting distraction as he helps her deal with the new developments in her life.

Woot!  This sounds exciting!  Stay tuned as we near the book release in March and be sure to follow Bethany's blog and twitter @bethanylopez2  

You can find also find her here:

Independent Author Network 

Bethany's Web Site

Twitter 

Amazon 

Smashwords 

Barnes & Noble 

Create Space 

Sony 

Readers Favourite

 

 

Join me in wishing Bethany the very best with her new book!!  

A Thursday Haiku - Time

time. standing, flying

it eludes, evades capture.

wanting more, we are.

Oh hi!  Sorry to have left without a trace last week, but some exciting things are going on in my non-writing life that have required all of my moments, and the in-between was filled with sick kids, and mom-naps. #fordaysanddays

The exciting stuff is that my nonprofit org is one step closer to getting our very own specialty license plate in Colorado. For those of you who might not be aware, in some US States they have allowed causes and other orgs like sports teams and military groups create a specialty plate that you can purchase for your car. Our plate will be for Child Loss Awareness, and the bill is coming into committee in a couple of weeks.  I am busy with this and excited by this, and learning a civics lesson all at the same time.

Anyone remember the Schoolhouse Rock that talks about how bills are made into law? I am involved in this, albeit on the State level #yay:

Send good wishes for our bill HB12-1131 to be voted favorably through committee, and if you wish to stay in the loop on how to contact your legislators and other news relating to this, subscribe to our newsletter at Rowan Tree Foundation and like RTF on Facebook!

Peace, love and license plates!